World Toilet day is a week away

On World Toilet Day, 19 November, we want to highlight the fact that over 230,000 disabled people and their families in the UK are unable to access toilets which meet their needs.

In the UK, many people don’t give going out for the day or visiting public buildings a second thought. However, we know that this is not the case for the thousands of disabled people who are unable to take part in activities that many take for granted due to standard accessible toilets not meeting their needs, or those of their carers.

The 19th November marks World Toilet Day, which was set up by the World Toilet Organisation. To mark the day, the World Toilet Organisation launched The Big Squat- a movement for the toilet-less, where people squat for one minute in a highly visible location at 12 noon.

This year, the Changing Places campaign will be taking part in the Big Squat to help highlight the need for Changing Places toilets in public spaces in order to meet the needs of the 230,000 people who need additional support and appropriate facilities in order to use the toilet.

Some of our campaigners in London will be heading to the Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park in Stratford to do our own squat. We also think this is a great opportunity to celebrate the availability of Changing Places facilities at the park and the accessibility legacy left behind by the London 2012 Olympic and Parlaymplic games.

However, we want as many Changing Places supporters from across the country to take part in whatever way they can. So, if you would like to take part and want more information then do get in touch with us by emailing changingplaces@mencap.org.uk or tweet us @CP_consortium
The official sponsor of the Changing Places campaign is Aveso Ltd. Aveso hope that its support for the campaign will help it achieve its target of 1000 registered Changing Places toilets within the next three years.